Pressure

TP-1 Operation
The TP-1 will be ready for operation after the transducer and antennas are connected, and immediately on receiving power. The operator will establish the parameters for data collection

Recording and detection parameters
One of the keys to good effective data collection will be setting the eleven TP-1 parameters and data identification. These parameters will fall into these categories.

Monitoring site identification number for future reference

Background pressure averaging criteria. This might be ten pressure samples at one second intervals, for example.

Background pressure recording interval. For instance this might be once per minute.

Transient pressure record interval, which can be as close as 0.01 seconds, providing 100 data points per second.

Transient pressure start and stop criteria, which will be established as a statistical differences from the background running-average pressure.

TP-1 Setup screen page from Installation Manual

These parameters are set by the TP-1 user using the PDA supplied with the system and the QView software provided with the TP-1 for this purpose. The normal procedure is to use default settings established by Pipetech International, and adjust these settings for the particular pressures and the test location. The objective will be to record the most severe transients that occur during normal operations, without collecting data that is insignificant. To an extent, this is a trial and error process: if no transients are detected, the parameters are relaxed, and if an excessive quantity of transients is detected the parameters are tightened. The transient detections will be shown on the TP-1 RUN screen in real time, facilitating the parameter setting process.

Recording Pressure Data
Once the parameters are set, the TP-1 is started from the RUN screen by simply pressing the green “RUN” button. Lights will confirm the system is operating, and the current pressure will appear, along with the current time, in the upper portion of the screen. The screen will also show the high and low pressure recorded since the system was turned on, and the high and low pressures of the most recent transient.

The communication link may be turned off, and the TP-1 will continue to record. The 23 megabyte internal data storage in the TP-1 will record 1.6 million data points. The length of time to fill this storage will of course depend on the data recording parameters. At a background pressure recording rate of once per minute, with no transients detected, the storage will fill in about 3 years; if a background pressure recording rate of once per second is set, the storage will fill in about 16 days. The volume of data collect is very dependent on the number of transient events recorded. Typical settings might be a background record rate of once per minute and transient record rate of 100 Hz, and the volume of data collected will be in the range of 15 KB to 30 KB per day.

If the internal data file is completely filled, the system will continue to monitor, however it will not “over-write” the other data, but will simply stop recording any further data.